LOS ANGELES — Shannon Brown set
career highs with 27 points and 10 rebounds while starting in place of
the injured Kobe Bryant, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden
State Warriors 104-94 on Tuesday night.
Andrew Bynum added 21 points and seven
rebounds in his return to the lineup after missing two games because of
a bruised right hip that still gives him discomfort. He was 8-for-11
from the field in 30 minutes.
Brown made his third start and had his
first career double-double, scoring eight points in the final 1:13
while Bryant sat out his fourth straight game because of a sprained left
ankle.
The defending NBA champions have won
all four games they've played without Bryant, who also was unable to
play in the All-Star game.
Four different players have led the
Lakers in scoring during his absence, including Ron Artest, Pau Gasol
and Lamar Odom, who had 18 rebounds and eight points against the
Warriors.
Anthony Morrow scored 23 points and
C.J. Watson added 20 off the bench for the Warriors, who lost to the
Lakers for the eighth straight time and have dropped 29 of their last 32
road games against Los Angeles.
Stephen Curry had 11 points, 10
rebounds and eight assists for the Warriors, who are 2-20 against the
Lakers at Staples Center since the arena opened in 1999.
The injury-ravaged Warriors used their
30th different starting lineup while losing for the 10th time in 11
games. Corey Maggette had 17 points after missing two games with a
dislocated ring finger on his non-shooting hand, but leading scorer
Monta Ellis missed his second straight due to a sprained left knee and
was in Birmingham, Ala., to get it examined by Dr. James Andrews.
The Warriors, who came in averaging a
league-best 23.2 fast-break points, didn't crack that column until Watson
made a driving layup with 9:46 left in the second quarter to trim the
Lakers' lead to 38-26. Former Laker Ronny Turiaf's dunk capped a 25-9 run
that turned Golden State's 14-point deficit into a 49-47 lead with 1:55
left in the half.
Bryant did not miss a game in either
of the previous two seasons. The next game he plays will be his 1,000th
during the regular season, and will make him the youngest player in NBA
history to reach that milestone.
Notes
The Lakers are 57-33 all-time
when Bryant has been out of the lineup. … A moment of silence was
observed in memory of former Lakers coach and general manager Fred
Schaus, who died last Wednesday at age 84. … Frank "Pep" Saul, who
played on three Lakers championship teams in Minneapolis during the
1950s, turned 86 years old on Tuesday. He's the second-oldest living
Lakers player behind Gene Stump — who was born 95 days before Saul. …
Brown made a pair of jumpers less than a minute apart that originally
were ruled 3-pointers. But both were changed to 2-pointers after the
referees reviewed the tape during a timeout with 4 1/2 minutes left in
the first quarter.